A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system and method for examining students to certify higher-order problem solving and information technology skills, including web search and evaluation skills, understanding of general computing concepts, web page design skills, presentation software utilization skills, spreadsheet utilization skills, word processing software utilization skills, and legal and ethical issue understanding.
2. Background of the Invention
Businesses have grown increasingly reliant on the use of computers and other processing equipment to perform tasks. Accordingly, employers seek to hire employees who have at least a minimum level of skill in certain computer-related areas. This is particularly true for the growing number of high-tech companies that are particularly reliant on computers for internal communications, information distribution through intranets, and other operations. Indeed, whereas in the past, most companies have sought out employees with information technology skills only for technical jobs, such as engineering, computer programming specialists and the like, now businesses want to have employees with at least a minimal level of computer skills in almost every position, from marketing, sales, accounting, human resources and almost every other facet of the business.
Currently, employers have a difficult time determining whether a potential employee has the necessary computer skills that they desire for a particular job. Some employers require potential new hires to pass an examination to demonstrate their computer and other skills. These companies, however, must utilize valuable human resource time and energy to issue, grade and evaluate examinations for all potential employees. This is particularly true if a large number of applicants are being hired on a regular basis, such as at large corporations, where the turnover rate may be relatively high or the growth rate may be great. Additionally, from a potential employee""s perspective, it is very time consuming to take an examination for every potential employer.
In addition to examinations issued by corporations, a number of examinations related to computer skills already exist. For example, many colleges and universities offer certain courses which teach various computer skills and base the grade for those courses on an examination. These courses, however, are often different in scope and coverage depending on the university, college, or private institution offering the examination. As a result, potential employers have a difficult time assessing the relative merits of one candidate versus another when their scores are based on different tests. For example, suppose one candidate got a xe2x80x9cBxe2x80x9d in a computer course at college A, but another candidate got a xe2x80x9cCxe2x80x9d in a different computer course at a different college. If the candidate who got a C in one college course took a much more difficult computer course, then that potential employee is at a significant disadvantage even though his or her skills in the computer area may even be greater than those of other candidates.
Also, start-up companies are typically small and do riot have the resources to determine potential employees"" skill, nor do they have the resources to train new employees.
Additionally, there are programs that offer certifications for individuals who demonstrate skills for using particular software packages. These certification programs generally are very specific to a particular software package and do not demonstrate an individual""s broad-based understanding of various computer skills.
Existing systems suffer from these and other drawbacks and disadvantages.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome these and other drawbacks and disadvantages of existing systems.
AN object of the present invention is to provide a uniform computer skill certification examination that may be issued to a broad-based population of potential employees.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a computer skills examination that may be offered over the Internet to enable virtually anyone to participate in taking the examination.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an examination that measures both higher order analytical skills combined with technology application skills.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a computer skills examination that determines an examinee""s aptitude to search the World Wide Web (WWW or xe2x80x9cwebxe2x80x9d0 for information, to evaluate web pages, to demonstrate a general understanding of computer concepts, to design a web page, to use presentation software, to utilize spreadsheet programs, to utilize word processing programs, to demonstrate an understanding of legal and ethical issues relating to computer technology, to utilize word processing programs, and to assimilate, evaluate and summarize information in an effective and presentable form using the WWW and various software tools.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system in which a plurality of exam providers may cooperate to provide a computer certification examination for a number of different examinees.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a system in which exam providers may submit proposed exam questions to a host system for approval by one or more of a plurality of exam question approvers and then storing the approved exam questions in a database for later use when the exam is actually offered.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an exam generation system whereby stored and approved exam questions in a plurality of categories are generated into an examination for approval by an exam administrator. The exam administrator may then selectively substitute individual questions within each of one or more of the sections of the examination to provide the examination that is distributed over the Internet to examinees.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an exam generation system in which a predetermined number of questions in each of a plurality of sections of the examination are selectively chosen from approved questions designated for those sections and provided to an exam administrator for final approval before issuance to a plurality of examinees.
According to these and other objects of the present invention, a system is provided which contains a plurality of examinee systems connected over the Internet to an exam distribution server. The exam distribution server connects to an exam database system which contains a plurality of exam questions that have been approved by one or more exam question approvers. Periodically, exam question providers submit potential exam questions to the exam distribution server which are then distributed to question approvers for approval. All approved exam questions are then stored in the exam database system.
The exam database system may store a plurality of potential exam questions for each of a plurality of sections of the examination. According to one embodiment, these sections may include a section for web search and evaluation, a section for general computing concepts, a web page design section, a section for using presentation software, a section relating to spreadsheets and word processing, and a section relating to legal and ethical issues.
An exam administration system may also be provided that cooperates with the exam distribution server to selectively implement an exam that is offered over the Internet to the examinee systems.
In particular, the exam administrator system may request that an exam be generated by the exam distribution server. Upon a request, the exam distribution server selects a predetermined number of questions in each of the predetermined sections of the examination and presents the proposed exam to the exam administration system. The exam administrator may then selectively substitute one or more questions from the exam database into the proposed examination, until the exam administrator is satisfied that the exam covers all of the topics that the exam administrator desires to cover. At that point, the exam administrator makes the exam available over the Internet to one or more of the plurality of examinee systems who may then take the exam over the Internet and store their submitted exam at the exam distribution server which in turn grades the exams for certification.
Use of the system of the present invention provides a method of uniformly certifying examinee""s computer usage skills. Accordingly, the certification program of the present invention may be used by employers throughout the country and throughout the world to determine an individual""s skill set relating to basic computer and Internet-related skills.
In particular, of the six sections mentioned, each covers a skill set relating to present computer usage that would be advantageous to any employee at one or more of the employers. Particularly, the web search and evaluation section tests the examinee""s ability to utilize existing web search tools to locate references and information on the World Wide Web. That section also tests the examinee""s ability to utilize and understand web pages and to be able to evaluate those pages for various criteria. The second section, general computing concepts, may test the examinee""s understanding of basic computer terminology, hardware, software, and how it operates. The third section may test the examinee""s ability to create a web page. The fourth section may test the examinee""s understanding of presentation software, and the examinee""s ability to create simple presentations. The fifth section may test the examinee""s ability to manipulate data within a spreadsheet and perform ordinary word processing tasks. The sixth section may test the exarninee""s ability to understand legal and ethical issues relating to computers which is increasingly important in today""s computer savy workplace.
Through the present examination, examinees may be tested on their understanding of the following: basic hardware, software and network concepts and the use of operating systems; their ability to determine the information requirements for a research question or problem and to be able to formulate and conduct effective searches of electronic and Internet-based resources; their ability to assess the usefulness and accuracy of information gathered in searches; their ability to use word processing software to create a document containing textual and tabular information; their ability to use spreadsheets to analyze data, discern trends and patterns, and perform basic statistical operations; their ability to understand the appropriate use of graphs and charts to aggregate and display information; their ability to use presentation software, to organize text and data and to design a persuasive presentation suitable for a certain audience; their ability to determine which technology tools are appropriate to retrieve, interpret, and present information in order to solve problems in a work environment; and their understanding of copyright, security, and privacy and ethical issues in the field of information technology.
These and other objects of the present invention will be readily appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art upon reviewing the present disclosure.